Ghost review: Shiva Rajkumar shines in MG Srinivas's clunky heist thriller

In Ghost, director MG Srinivas attempts to deliver a film that carries the ethos of a slick heist film like Spike Lee's Inside Man, but is also obligated to deliver the whistle-worthy mass moments that fans expect from a Shiva Rajkumar-starrer. It's a strange crossover of two subgenres if you look at it closely, but when handled well they could combine to form a one-of-a-kind experience that the Kannada audience has not encountered before. That said, the filmmaker is required to tread extremely carefully here because they must ensure that they don't forego nuances of either.

And Srinivas, to his credit, puts his best foot forward. But his earnestness, unfortunately, doesn't compensate for the lack of skill and flair that the task demands. Ghost might be a well-intended endeavour but the film feels so incohesive that by the end, you might walk out unsure whether the heist, after all, was completed. A lot happens in the film, no doubt, but the writing needed more agency and control to keep the audience hooked throughout. Instead, what we get is an extremely verbose and dense narrative that fails to do justice to the enterprising premise.

But let's first understand what Ghost is all about. The film begins in the present day when we see the inmates of a central jail held hostage by a masked man and his aides. What does the man want? It's not clear yet but the authorities know that the operation is deadly enough to bring intelligence and negotiation officer Chengappa (Jayaram) into the picture. In a sense, what Srinivas deftly does is create a battle-of-wits scenario wherein we have two 'experts' facing off against each other.

If the masked man calls the shots, Chengappa has competent answers and the game is extended in an entertaining manner until the latter realises that the force he is dealing with is no ordinary one. And that's when he is forced to dig up the past for answers. But can the new knowledge help him pin the bad guy down?

It won't be a spoiler to reveal that the masked man is, of course, Shiva Rajkumar himself and that deep down, he is no bad guy either. Thanks to the frequent intercuts between the past and the present, we are able to contextualise the heist, and even relate to the characters that are part of it. Srinivas doesn't shy away from revealing his inner Shivanna fan and lends several pedestal moments to the veteran actor, who seems in really good form. Shiva Rajkumar carries a perpetual smoulder in the film, but also exudes control over his character, which helps the subpar sequences fly by. The problem, though, lies in the fact that the setting around him feels less like a heist and more like a coup staged by disgruntled prisoners.

And that issue stems mainly because Srinivas doesn't convince us of the world that he has built. The physical landscape feels discomfitingly scattered, making you unable to follow its topography. A film with similar features is the 2021 Malayalam release Freedom at Midnight, which saw a bunch of prisoners devising an implausible plan to break out. A lot of the earlier Malayalam film’s charm lay in the fact that we are able to understand what they were attempting.

Sure, the stakes in Ghost are considerably high and it's got a bigger and more chaotic setting to deal with. Regardless, you would expect Srinivas to construct a world that feels real and identifiable. A lot of it is kept literally in the dark for cinematic effect, which just doesn't work.

What also doesn't work is the fact his screenplay is crammed with ideas. While they do add to the fun, the sum of it all is not as pleasing. Instead of focusing on character development and carefully navigating the narrative, he ends up focusing too much on the flashy moments. For instance, one might have expected an invigorating scene to play out between Shiva Rajkumar and Jayaram's characters and while the story does accommodate that in the second half, Srinivas's execution falters in making that scene effective.

Despite all that, Ghost isn't a bad watch, mainly because it doesn't contain the unnecessary frills of a routine commercial film. As described, we are dropped right into the belly of the drama and the story unfolds relentlessly after that. If only all the contrivances and the ploys of the writing had landed as intended and the characters had more breathing space to explore themselves, Ghost would have been a far better experience. We do know now that a sequel is in the works and that Srinivas himself, in his 'Birbal' avatar, is likely to be a part of it. So, hopefully, the next instalment will be a film worth the billing.

Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the producers or any other members of its cast and crew.